Sunday, August 08, 2004

HP censorship

Now I understand the lack of product reviews when h6315 was first announced about 2 weeks ago: HP censorship. The lack of reviews is in deep contrast to last year when HP announced the 2215, which I promptly bought after reading some great reviews. Perhaps in an attempt to muffle negative reviews of their new lackluster PocketPC products, HP has been sending some new Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) to enthusiast Sites:

Here is the skinny. On June 18, 2004 I received an email invitation from HP.(see below) It was asking us to moderate our users posts to delete references of the "rumored" models...Anyhow, there were other things HP was asking me to do related to "rumors". They wanted us to discontinue posting leaked info as well. I was willing to do this. What were we getting out of this deal? Early evaluation units of new products 1-60 days pre-launch (at HP's discretion and dependent on availability) and a few other info related benefits that, in my opinion, should be available to media without selling out...

Two PocketPC enthusiastic sites posted about this NDA and generated tons of negative discussion on HP. I didn't post on those forums, being a shy shadowy lurker, but hey, this is my blog, I don't think HP can censor my tiny web existence for linking to these stories, can they? :-P